Las Cruces police officer returns to work 21 months after being shot. Here's Adrian De La Garza's story.
LAS CRUCES – Officer Adrian De La Garza has been a police officer with the Las Cruces Police Department for most of his adult life. It’s something, in talking to him about his experience in the profession, that he is clearly passionate about.
But on Feb. 4, 2021, that career was nearly cut short by a bullet fired during a traffic stop on Interstate 10, involving a suspect that had already taken the life of New Mexico State Police Officer Darian Jarrott.
A bullet hit De La Garza in the arm and went through his body that day and after being on leave for 21 months to recover, he finally returned to the job last week.
The Las Cruces Sun-News spoke with De La Garza about the day that changed his career, the challenges of his recovery and what motivates him to keep doing the job that he loves.
Before LCPD
De La Garza was born in Ciudad Juárez. He would go on to attend Mayfield High School in Las Cruces, graduating in 2002 before joining the Army where he worked to assuage nuclear, biological and chemical threats.
“The military is something I always wanted to do, so I signed up in high school,” De La Garza said. “And I had a lot of friends that were police officers. They talked me into applying. I applied when I was 19 years old, and I’ve been a cop ever since.”
He had been on the job 17 years before that fateful day in February 2021.
The day of the shooting
De La Garza described Feb. 4, 2021 as a pretty slow day — at least when it started.
“There weren’t a whole lot of calls that day that were coming in, so I just went out to Roadrunner (Parkway) and wrote out a couple of tickets.”
He went to lunch, did a workout, and got ready to return to work. Then the call came in about the shooting death of a state police officer. At that point, De La Garza was back at the police station, and it was all hands on deck. LCPD, the Doña Ana Sheriff’s Office, New Mexico State Police, U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) were all involved in the pursuit of Omar Felix Cueva. Cueva, who killed Jarrott during a traffic stop on I-10 west of Deming, was headed toward Las Cruces.
Jarrott was assisting HSI when he stopped Cueva. He told Cueva he pulled him over because his window tint was too dark. Within minutes Cueva had shot Jarrott multiple times, killing him.
De La Garza is a motorcycle officer, and isn’t “allowed to chase anyone” on the motorcycle. So he jumped in his department-issued Camaro and responded to the ongoing chase on I-10. He ended up being primary officer on the scene.
De La Garza encountered Cueva near the Avenida de Mesilla exit on I-10 and was able to stop him using a precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuver, in which the rear fender of a vehicle is clipped, causing it to spin around and bring a pursuit to an end.
De La Garza couldn’t speak at length about how everything unfolded afterward because the case is at the center of ongoing lawsuits. But we know that Cueva exited his vehicle and fired multiple rounds at De La Garza. De La Garza was struck in the right bicep. De La Garza returned fire, killing Cueva.
“The bullet went through my right bicep, my armpit, and then it came out of my back,” De La Garza told the Sun-News.
Injuries that are 'not-life-threatening'
At the time of the shooting, De La Garza’s injury was characterized as "not life-threatening.” He was, however, airlifted to an El Paso-area hospital. And just because the injury was not life-threatening does not mean it was not life-altering, as is attested to by 21 months of recovery.
“I’m still not fully recovered in my arm,” De La Garza said. “It’s going to be a permanent disability that I have. I don’t have feeling in most of my arm, most of my fingers, the right side of my back. I have a lot of nerve damage, so my arm always feels like it’s on fire.”
As it turns out, De La Garza was not the only LCPD officer injured in the line of duty that month.
Josh Herrera, who is also a traffic officer, was run over in an incident in front of the Doña Ana Park Apartments, 1900 Solano Dr., on Feb. 3, 2021, the day before the I-10 shootings.
De La Garza talked about Herrera's injury.
“The suspect’s vehicle ran over all of the right side of his body,” De La Garza said. “So he had to get surgery on his knee, his shoulder, his ankle — I think he had, like, four surgeries. They basically ran over everything except for his head.”
Less than two weeks later, LCPD officer Manny Soto was run over at the Sonic Drive-In at 2925 N. Main St. on Feb. 15.
“He actually sustained the same injuries Josh Herrera did. They both got run over the same way, same side of the body, and they ended up getting the same surgeries, as well,” De La Garza said.
All three officers returned to work last week.
“Having all three officers back is a great way to end the year,” said LCPD Chief Miguel Dominguez. “It says a lot about a person’s character to be knocked down, to stare at adversity and come back stronger than before.”
De La Garza attends Jarrott’s funeral in Lordsburg
De La Garza was released from the hospital the same day he was shot, he said. Four days later, he attended Jarrott’s funeral in Lordsburg, New Mexico, the slain NMSP officer’s hometown.
“I was proud that they let me go and attend it and be part of it,” De La Garza told the Sun-News. “Because, with the COVID restrictions, it was only open for State Police. But the chief, and all of the higher-ups from the State Police, they sent an invitation for me and let me go.”
De La Garza’s work uniform had to be altered, he said, to accommodate the swelling in his arm and back.
“People didn’t really know who I was at the time,” De La Garza said. “And once they figured out I was the LCPD officer involved in the shooting, everybody was squeezing my arm, giving me a pat on the back, squeezing me hard — and by the time I left, I was covered in blood.”
The recovery process
De La Garza said he didn’t think it would take long to recover from his injuries. He was in for a surprise.
“I wasn’t in that much pain when I got out of the hospital,” he said. “But as soon as the massive swelling in my arm and back went away, that’s when the pain kicked in. And I knew I wasn’t getting back to work anytime soon. I couldn’t sleep. The pain was excruciating.”
After a number of procedures and injections, De La Garza started to feel a little bit better, but he came to realize it would be a long road to recovery.
He did physical therapy for five hours a day for nearly 10 weeks.
After he got shot, he fell on his right side — and that started a cascade of other physical problems he would have to recover from.
“When I fell, I actually ruptured one of my discs in my back, and I messed up my rotator cuff and damaged my elbow,” De La Garza said.
Even after recovering enough to return to work, he still deals with numbness in his right arm — which is his shooting arm, his writing arm, his dominant hand. He’s not sure when or if that sensation may ever return.
Recognitions and awards
In May 2021, De La Garza was honored with a Distinguished Service Award for his bravery.
"He did what he needed to do, stopped that individual and then to top it off, this guy comes out shooting and Officer De La Garza just kept cool and did what he was trained to do and he truly is a Las Cruces finest and I just wanted to give him a small token of our appreciation," said Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima. “I know that the police department has their own internal medals for valor, but this was something here that I give; it’s the highest award that I can give to someone.”
In October 2021, De La Garza was also awarded the Purple Heart for his sacrifice. He was thanked and honored for his service at a ceremony facilitated by Stoneshield Ministries who presented both awards on behalf of the National Awards Program from the National Police Hall of Fame.
He was also awarded the awarded the Silver Star for bravery.
“To be honest with you, it’s kind of hard to explain,” De La Garza said. “But, at the same time, I didn’t feel good about it. Officer Jarrott’s family was there, and it didn’t feel right — me getting an award for it when their son was killed. It was really good seeing them there, but it was bittersweet. It didn’t seem fair to me.”
He said, however, that it was important for him to be there because it meant so much to his two daughters.
“What I want people to realize is — you know, like let’s say we get in a shooting, or something bad happens at the police department,” De La Garza said. “Everybody wants to see those videos right away. But, what people don’t realize is that the suspect's kids are going to see them. The officer’s kids are going to see them, or their loved ones.”
And it is really hard to watch — even as a seasoned news reporter.
“But when my kids saw that, it was just traumatizing,” De La Garza said. “It’s one thing for me to talk about it, but they saw it on the news, they saw it on YouTube, they saw it on TikTok — it was just traumatizing because that’s their dad.”
Back on the job
“It was mixed emotions,” De La Garza told the Sun-News after returning to work last Tuesday. “I was really, really excited. I wanted to get back out there again. I missed my job, I missed being out there with my friends. I missed the community. I just missed being in uniform.”
He said the community has also been very supportive.
“But, at the same time, I was really nervous about being out there again,” he said.
In the months following the shooting, De La Garza wanted to get back out on the street.
“At the beginning, in the first year, it was mostly for my kids — like, I wanted to show them that I wasn’t injured, I wasn’t hurting, and I wanted to get back to work just to prove to them that I was OK.”
But, as it turned out, dad wasn’t exactly Superman. It took some time before he could recover from all of those injuries — but he did.
“That was my biggest fear,” he said. “I just didn’t want my last day of work to be that day. I don’t want my kids to have that memory of that being the last day I put on a uniform.”
Damien Willis is a Lead Reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at 575-541-5443, dwillis@lcsun-news.com or @DamienWillis on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Adrian De La Garza returns to work 21 months after being shot
